Jump directly to the Content
Jump directly to the Content

Sermon Illustrations

Home > Sermon Illustrations

God Bought Back His Sheep

There's a line in the Old Testament written by Isaiah that tells the result of God's gamble, (Isaiah 53:6): "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way." Although God has a right to own us because he created us, he gave us the option of freedom, and we all left. We chose sin and did not love him as he wanted to be loved. In response, he chose to send out his own son to look for us, to hunt us down, to find and redeem us at a terrible cost--the cost of his own life.

A shepherd notches the ear of a lamb born to his flock and has rightful ownership. That lamb deliberately walks away. The shepherd searches near and far to get that lamb back. A long time later, he finds not a baby lamb but a grown sheep for sale at an animal auction. The shepherd recognizes his mark on that sheep's ear. He goes to the auctioneer and says, "I can see the mark. That sheep is mine."

The auctioneer says, "Listen, you must bid and pay just like anybody else."

The shepherd bids and pays an outrageous price, far above any reasonable market value in order to get his lamb. He now has a double right to own this sheep: from birth, from redemption.

God has a right to own us as creator and because he has paid the blood of his own Son--an outrageous price far above our market value--in order to redeem us back again.

Related Sermon Illustrations

Wandering from God's House

On February 24, 2001, a one-year old Canadian girl named Erika somehow wandered out of her mother's bed and house and spent the entire night in the Edmonton winter.

When her mother, ...

[Read More]

Titanic Ticket Unused

An unused Titanic ticket—the only first-class passage booked that was not used—belonged to a Liverpool clergyman. The Reverend John Stuart Holden was unable to make the ...

[Read More]